THE GARDEN OF WORDS' UNIQUE CONCEPT(S) OF LOVE
The Garden of Words, aka Kotonoha no Niwa, is a film by Makoto Shinkai, that revolves around Takao Akizuki, an aspiring 15-year-old shoemaker, and Yukari Yukino, a mysterious 27-year-old woman he keeps ihave,+pp ,🐮🐮🤞meeting at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden on rainy mornings.
While it is 7 years old, people still have misconceptions about it and I've not seen any reviewer/creator actually describe it. Given its always overshadowed by Your Name aka Kimi no Na Wa, The Garden of Words also happens to be one of the before-hype non shonen anime in my home country India.
So, before discussing the concepts that, in my point of view, Makoto sensei tried to portray in The Garden of Words, let's go through some misconceptions fans often have, starting with,
Takao's feet fetish? Well I can see a lot of romantic misconception that audience might have when watching The Garden of Words, but this easily takes the cake for the most outrageous one. Firstly, the accuser to get over Fifty shades of Gray, cause not everybody has fetishes for fuck's sake. Now Takao wanted to make shoes, a lot before he met Yukino. One of his inspirations had been the shoe that his father, his brother and he gave to his mum one birthday(as seen in a flashback), which further inspires the design of the shoe he keeps in the very spot he met with Yukino as a promise.
Yukino is a pedophile? Well, it depends on how we convey the meaning of pedophilia here. I mean if just falling(seemingly) for Takao makes her pedophile, she definitely is close to being one. But the official definition, pedophile is, an adult who is sexually attracted to young children. Well it would be totally wrong to say that there is no sexual love in The Garden of Words, but it definitely wasn't from Yukino's part. For Yukino, it was much more than a sexual stimuli or even an attraction of girl and boy, it was something different which brought me to write this article in the first place.
Sexuality, undoubted was a part of Takao's attraction towards Yukino. Given that he's 15 years old and is just going through his late puberty. For his age he was quite mature as a proof we are shown how he deals with her mother's post marital relationship with younger boys. For Takao, Yukino was a symbol of his adulthood. Adulthood, that consists of love, ambition and mostly freedom. His dialogues also reflects his form of love.
But people miss is, Takao actually sees his mother in Yukino[AS A BOY, I CAN CONFIRM IF WE BOYS FIND A WOMAN WHO RESEMBLE OUR MOTHERS, WE FALL HEAD THROUGH HEELS FOR HER].
When Takao got to know that Yukino was his teacher and a very liked one until some incidences happen unlike her carefree mother, his decision to support her showed how much has that small inch of sexual attraction and emotional stability has become. Takao also gets a remarkable amount of character development[which is visible during the ending scene where he bluffs about hating Yukino to lessen her guilt] for a 45 min movie[Fun Fact :- That's 20× more than Sakura in the whole Naruto and Boruto series].
On the other Yukino wasn't really sexually attracted to Takao. She wasn't in a position to be. Yukino, who was seemingly going through PTSD and existential crisis, had no one who would stay with her. In a place like the Gyoen, where couples go to date, it was like salt in a wound for her. But when the rain came, there was someone who conversed to her, someone she could talk to, apart from the stuffs she's been going through. That's why her tanka,
"Narukami no sukoshi toykumori
sashi kumori
Ame mo furanu ka?
Kimi wo todomemu"
(A faint clap of thunder, Clouded skies, Perhaps rain comes, If so, will you stay here with me?)[Also the rain here, in the tanka, refers to sorrow]
That emotional support gave her the strength she got from Takao wasn't enough to make her fall in love(yea, the love all you perverts are thinking about) with him. But indeed it gave her strength to actually visit school, knowing that her encounter with Takao would certainly be her last. But when Takao went on to answer her tanka(even after he got to know Yukino probably knew him all along),
"Narukami no sukoshi toyomite
furazu to mo
warewa tomaramu
imoshi todomeba"
(A faint clap of Thunder, even if the rain comes not, I will stay here, together with you)[Aww so romantic, take notes people who crushes love poems], made her fall in love with him but she knew that society wouldn't accept her and as a teacher it is a bad example. The moment Takao leaves, all her previous and current emotions ooze out resulting in their first and probably only intimate moment.
The Garden of Words expresses that love isn't so beautiful, it isn't all powerful, it isn't all sunshines and roses, in fact it is rain. Whenever you try to kick the collected water it splashes you with sadness. But one thing love isn't, is complete. Love is always incomplete. The Garden of Words isn't only a story about a kid having a crush on his teacher, but two individuals, letting in their inner demons and further conquering them, probably never meeting each other ever again.
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So, yea I'm writing this on Christmas Eve and FML to be honest, 2020 has sucked for most of us, spoiler alert, 2021 will be worse, so you guys better kill yourself[Not really you fuckers].
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